Over the line? Energy drink called Cocaine

September 24, 2006|By Newhouse News Service.

In the competitive market for "energy drinks," the aim is to advertise more caffeine, more buzz, more attitude.

Even more controversy.

The latest beverage to break from the pack is the Cocaine Energy Drink, created by Redux Beverages of Las Vegas. So far sold mostly in New York and California clubs, it will become available online, according to its Web site (drinkcocaine.com).

The drink has the caffeine of about 3 1/2 cups of coffee but no narcotics, and boasts on its Web site, "Instant Rush. No Crash!"

Drug experts and nutritionists are appalled.

"Kids get hopped up on drinks called Cocaine and Xtazy and then what happens when someone offers them a line of real cocaine or an Ecstasy pill?" said Joseph Califano Jr., president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

In an interview, Jamey Kirby, the drink's inventor, said the 8-ounce energy drink does not promote or glamorize drugs. "Kids already know what's out there," he said.

Few of the new energy drinks are healthful, nutritionists said. "Cocaine" contains vitamins C, B-6 and B-12, according to the Web site.

"Those vitamins are already ubiquitous, even in the most horrible diet. We don't need them in a drink," said Diane Radler, a nutritionist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.